A light meal is laid out at midnight (5)
I believe the answer is:
gleam
'a light' is the definition.
(I have seen 'brief light' mean 'gleam' so perhaps 'light' could also mean 'gleam')
'meal is laid out at midnight' is the wordplay.
'is laid out' indicates anagramming the letters.
'at' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'midnight' becomes 'g' (the middle letter in 'night').
'meal' is an anagram of 'leam'.
'leam' after 'g' is 'GLEAM'.
(Other definitions for gleam that I've seen before include "Beam of soft light, comes and goes" , "Look in the eye" , "Glimmer, lustre" , "Glint" , "Brief bright light" .)